Many of the best early photographers were artists who put their training in figural arrangement, light and shadow, and composition to good use in the new medium. Dolard, a portrait painter, may have offered photographs to prospective clients of lesser means. In this image, possibly made as an advertisement for his studio, he identifies himself as a painter, surrounded by the tools of the trade. The coat and the hookah suggest an interest in orientalism, a fashion that occupied many mid-19th-century artists. A remarkable technical achievement, this whole-plate image required Dolard to remain motionless for well over a minute, at least 30 times longer than the exposure for the smaller plates in the case below.

Inscription

Written in ink on attached label: "L1165j"

Exhibition History

Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; 5/27/00 - 8/9/00. "19th-Century French Portrait Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art."